EWTN has a report in which the Vatican decries its exclusion from the World AIDS Conference in Barcelona. Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan thinks, like many of us, that the Vatican's exclusion was due, in no small measure, to its lack of support for safe sex practices, in spite of the fact that the Catholic Church operates a significant number of AIDS care facilities around the world.

I am sympathetic up to this point, this is what gets under my skin:
The archbishop accused wealthy nations of concealing the facts about the AIDS epidemic. "They tell us that poverty is the principle cause," he said, "when in fact Europe and the United States are largely responsible for exporting AIDS to poor countries through sexual tourism and the spread of libertine attitudes." He argued that "poverty is not a cause, but a condition."

This is where I get sick in the pits. Why does the Vatican insist on blaming everything on the "libertine" values of rich Western countries, including the issue of abusive priests.

I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves and we, in these countries, should hold back on some of our $$s until we can get an ounce of respect.

No doubt the west has its problems and has exported so many unfortunate aspects of its culture to developing nations, but why not just let that be and work to try to counteract that? The Vatican is not going to change the West by railing against it and when they need help, we all of a sudden become "wonderful people with deep spiritual values."

For the record, I'm not the West's biggest fan, but I also can't stand taking easy shots at the West because it is such a big target. You'd expect the Vatican to show a little more restraint in their rhetoric.